Kanhaiya, Umar, Anirban among 10 summoned for hearing in JNU case

Chief metropolitan magistrate Pankaj Sharma directed the accused persons to appear before the court on March 15. The judge noted that the Delhi government has granted sanction to prosecute the accused.

A Delhi court on Tuesday summoned Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid, Anirban Bhattacharya and seven others in a case of sedition that was filed against them after anti-India slogans were allegedly raised at an event on JNU campus on February 9, 2016.

Former JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar inside the JNU campus. (HT file photo)

Chief metropolitan magistrate Pankaj Sharma directed the accused persons to appear before the court on March 15. The judge noted that the Delhi government has granted sanction to prosecute the accused.

“After careful perusal of the charge sheet and material, all the accused persons are summoned to face trial for the offence. .. Accused persons be summoned through the IO [investigating officer] for March 15,” the judge said.

A police officer associated with the case said the investigating team will examine the court’s order and accordingly respond to the directions given to the investigating officer. “As per the procedure, each person will be served notices asking them to present before the court on the scheduled date,” said the officer who declined to be named.

A case was registered on February 11, 2016 under sections 124A and 120B of the IPC against unidentified people at the Vasant Kunj (north) Police Station, following complaints from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Maheish Girri and the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the RSS.

Delhi police’s special cell filed a charge sheet on January 14, 2019. The police claimed that JNU student leader Kanhaiya Kumar and the other accused led a procession and supported seditious slogans raised on the campus in 2016, during an event to mark the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru.

The accused were charged with offences under sections 124A (sedition), 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt), 471 (using as genuine a forged document or electronic record), 143 (pun149 (being a member of an unlawful assembly), 147 (punishment for rioting) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Besides Kanhaiya, Khalid and Anirban, who were JNU students at the time of the event, other seven accused charge sheeted in the case are Kashmiri students Aquib Hussain, Mujeeb Hussain, Muneeb Hussain, Umar Gul, Rayeea Rassol, Bashir Bhat and Basharat.

Earlier, the case was adjourned several times due to lack of sanction by the Delhi government. The government’s home department granted the sanction in February last year.

After the charge sheet was filed in January, Kumar and Khalid said the police action was “politically motivated”.